Oh, no! Brakes! 97 Leg/Out

[Evenstar]

I thought it was my imagination when happening to me, until my friend drove my car to the airport today. When on the highway at a highway speed, when applying brakes in an unexpected having to slow down situation, it almost seems as if the car speeds up rather than slow down when applying brake. In town it's not so obvious. But sometimes while applying brakes with clutch in it seems to speed up instead. Is it just brake pads or is there other brake problems I've never heard of . In the summer when I got the car I saw the front and rear brakes and it looked like the pads still had time left. Please reply because I need to deal with it in the next couple of days. Is there and honest reasonable mechanic in Boulder Colorado or is that an oxymoron?

[lmdew]

No reason for this to happen unless you are hitting both pedals when you are going for the brake. Does the cruise control kick off like it should when the brakes are applied?

[rweddy]

Is there and honest reasonable mechanic in Boulder Colorado or is that an oxymoron?

I would recommend Swings in Denver.

[beezer]

When driving and you put in the clutch without applying the brakes do the revs drop to idle right away? Do the revs stay up for a moment then drop?

 

I had a problem when my car would idle around 2000 rpm's for a few seconds before dropping to normal. It would feel like the car would be accelerating for a moment when the brakes were applied.

 

Is there a check engine light on? Basic tune up stuff done lately, ie. filters, plugs, wires etc.?

 

Sounds to me more like an engine problem rather than a brake problem. Not suggesting to ignore the brakes though.

[Gnuman]

Regarding the brakes themselves: how does the pedal feel when you hit the brakes (Hard, soft, normal?) ?

 

I had a power booster go out on a Dodge caravan and it gave symptoms similar to yours (sometimes when hitting the brakes, the pedal would be very hard, and little or no reaction from the brakes themselves would be evident) This was intermitant, and therefore hard to diagnose. I put in a new booster (the large drum looking thing behind the master cylinder, on the firewall) and all was well again. Before you replace it, however, be sure it has good vaccume going to it. Besides that, check brake fluid level, condition of the pads, and condition of the rotors.

[zyewdall]

Is there an honest reasonable mechanic in Boulder Colorado or is that an oxymoron?

 

Superrupair up on Yarmouth and Broadway is usually good -- they've never tried to replace unneeded stuff for me. They don't like working on my older cars, but a '97 should be fine. If I encounter something I can't do myself, I usually take it to Dr. Fixit in Nederland. Cheaper, and he knows the EA82 and EA81 subaru's well. I have not had good experiences with places like Just brakes, or places that don't handle alot of subarus.

[Urban Coyote]

When driving and you put in the clutch without applying the brakes do the revs drop to idle right away? Do the revs stay up for a moment then drop?

 

I had a problem when my car would idle around 2000 rpm's for a few seconds before dropping to normal. It would feel like the car would be accelerating for a moment when the brakes were applied.

 

Is there a check engine light on? Basic tune up stuff done lately, ie. filters, plugs, wires etc.?

 

Sounds to me more like an engine problem rather than a brake problem. Not suggesting to ignore the brakes though.

 

What caused the rpm's to stay high for those few extra seconds before droping down to idle when you put the clutch in?

 

Urban Coyote

[beezer]

Urban Coyote:

 

This is a very long story, but, I'll try to summerize.

 

It ('92 legacy) would idle high and erratically at about 1100 rpm, but, it would have little spurts where it would idle at 2000-2400 rpm for a couple seconds, (usually when I pushed the clutch in). The CEL would come on, it would be the air control valve and fuel purge solenoid. I tested both repeatedly, they were always ok. Cleaned them both, no difference. Thought it might be a intake manifold leak or something, couldn't verify that either. Found a cracked knock sensor and a faulty spark plug wire twice in my searching.

 

These fixes seemed to cure it for a couple hours to a few days, but it would always return. Don't know what happened but after a 5 hour tour at 130 kph it was cured. Guess it blew some crap out of the engine or something. Going to run some seafoam through the upper engine sometime soon.